CSKA vs. Olympiacos Piraeus: 69-65 (+4)
CSKA: Antonov (0), Clyburn (17 + 9 rb + 4 st), Higgins (11 + 5 rb), Hackett (3 rb), Hunter (4) – start; De Colo (2 as), Peters (6 + 4 rb), Ukhov (DNP), Rodriguez (20 + 5 as + 4 to), Vorontsevich (3), Kulagin (2), Hines (6 + 5 rb + 2 as)…
Olympiacos: Williams-Goss (13 + 3 rb + 3 as + 2 st), Toupane (0), Milutinov (7 + 7 rb + 2 as), Printezis (14 + 6 rb), Papanikolaou (7 + 4 rb + 5 pf) – start; Toliopoulos (DNP), Spanoulis (16 + 3 rb + 6 as + 3 to), Timma (0), Vezenkov (4 rb), Mantzaris (0), Bogris (DNP), LeDay (8 + 5 rb)…
Dimitris Itoudis, CSKA head coach:
I would like to congratulate my players for another win, an important win. It was another lesson for us in different circumstances. We faced a lot of psychological difficulties in terms of missing open looks, missing layups, well-created shots. The outcome was not good in the first two quarters. At halftime we were only minus-4 and I would say only only minus-4 because when you have Cory Higgins shooting the ball 1 for 9 under the basket and some other players, then I said to them that I believe in them because I see them every day. That’s not something that has to stop us. The fact that we hadn’t moved the ball well and we were missing open looks costs the team, but we came out very strong and very decisive for the third quarter. We have the quality to force turnovers. I think that was the main point of emphasis, that they were being very cautious and alert. That’s the only quarter that we won. It was a huge boost. That third quarter with 6 out of 10 twos and 3 out of 7 threes with 0 free throws. Today we had also to dig a lot and we saw the deep bench that we have with Misha [Kulagin] giving us 11 quality minutes, Vorontsevich scoring a very important three-pointer and rebounds and a couple of defenses. It shows we have a good rotation that is ready. I like this versatility. It’s another example that we can win under 70 points.
